regina lewis is a national contributor for usa today. so regina, they're the ones, grandma my grandpa with the deep pockets? > > i don't know they have deep pockets but there wise enough to realize, that it's a real burden for their families and that they're looking for constructive ways to help. there also wise enough to realize that there are smart ways to help in not so smart ways to help. so they're taking advantage of things like 529 plans and now they are now grandparents contributing about 10 percent of all the money in 529 plans. so a legitimate trend. yes, we have a 529 planned for our hopefully one day college bound student. we had grandparents that were interested in helping out but, we said no. that is interesting that this trend is developing and it is simply because of the economic times and the rising cost of inflation it's just harder for families to pay for college. > >sure, i mean when you look at prod the university on average at on average $39,000 even public colleges 18,000 we need a collective approach we've seen th

joining me to break it all down, contributor regina lewis.et's start with retail numbers for last month. what have you got on that? >> it has fell to a five-month low in terms of overall consumer confidence. the confidence has most -- here you see the retail numbers. not what everyone was expecting. back-to-school sales didn't really kick in. we talked about car sales. people are buying big ticket items. but something else has to give. that's overall retail. consumer confidence a five-month low. so people not feeling back, with rumors of the fed tapering, which makes them feel like this housing rebound could slow down. that makes people feel poorer. >> that's the unfortunates timing, regina. it comes right back to back-to-school supplies and clothing. maybe kids are getting short-changed? >> i think it was supply cen tri c. i don't know if you have seen it in your own house, i think kids fashion is less seasonal. so there's no back-to-school looks per se. they wear the same thing year-round. maybe they add a sweater. so it's not what it used

joining me to break it down is regina lewis. the new iphones that hit the market. already sold out. what's going on here? >> well, you have bragging rights if you have the gold or champagne color 5s phone. the phones were made available in 11 countries yesterday. gold is sold out. popular in other countries. 90% of buyers are people upgrading their phones. they're not new apple customers. they are loyal customers. they had the black phone, the the white phone. now they want the gold. >> the labor department is breaking it down, right? >> there's real disparate depending which you fall into. the 20 poorest percent, two of three dollars goes to clothing, food, housing, necessities. if you are in the top 20%, you're able to invest in the future. the future being everything from inches to saving for college. 529 savings plans a great example. kids who have them seven times more likely to go to college. if $2 out of $3 are going to necessities, you don't have like that, it affects generations to come. >> and the anti poverty check. is this real? >> this is an absolute r

"usa today" contributor regina lewis. >> i would say hey big spender is missing.ng back. it's going to be a long one and looks like a slow one. not going as quickly as people might expect. the best news is on the jobs front. lowest unemployment numbers in six years. suggesting that the layoffs are over. so people's wages slowly going up. they're going to be careful about spending. sooner or later it will kick in. >> what about halloween? just a few weeks away now. a new survey might scare the the fun out of the popular holiday. >> it is expected to be down. i'll give you a not so scary reason why. this is really interesting. from 2008 to 2011 in particular halloween spending is way up. how can this be in great recession? there's a school of thought that says if you know you have to be tight around christmas, go all out at halloween. it's cheaper to be a festive halloween than to blowout the christmas season. you walk into both halloween and christmas displace. if you loaded up on all that stuff from 2008 to 2011 you don't need it anymore. you buy a pumpkin, the mu

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